NorCal father-daughter team disappointed by cancelled marathon

Family now plans to help clean up Central Park

A father and daughter team from Wilton preparing to run in this weekend's New York City Marathon said Friday evening they were disappointed by organizers' decision to cancel the race.

"It's tough on a lot of levels. There are, I'm sure, a lot of disappointed folks on one side. And then there's folks on the other side who think this was the right thing to do," said Kris Vogt of Wilton, while speaking to KCRA 3 by phone from his hotel in midtown Manhattan.

Vogt said this would have been his 13th marathon and that for his daughter Kaela, 21, it would have been her first.

"I was looking forward to it, so obviously, it's kind of a letdown, disappointing. I mean, under the circumstances, I completely understand," said Kaela Vogt.

Around 47,500 runners - 30,000 of them from outside New York - had been expected to take part in the 26.2-mile event Sunday, with more than 1 million spectators usually lining the route.

The world's largest marathon had been scheduled to start in Staten Island, one of the places hardest hit by Hurricane Sandy.

"We would not want a cloud to hang over the race or its participants, and so we have decided to cancel it," New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement.

"We cannot allow a controversy over an athletic event - even one as meaningful as this - to distract attention away from all the critically important work that is being done to recover from the storm and get our city back on track," said Bloomberg.

Vogt said he and his daughter arrived from California on Wednesday after dealing with numerous flight cancellations.

He said they had ridden the subway and were impressed by New York's recovery so far.

He said he believed the logistics were in place to hold the event and that it would have provided a boost to the New York economy.

"From a participant level, it appeared to me that the political and social pressure became so great that, I think, they felt like they were left with a choice to say today... this isn't worth it," said Kris Vogt.

Vogt said he and daughter planned to take part in an effort on Saturday to clean up storm damage in New York's Central Park.

He said they both planned to take part in next year's race.

As of now, organizers are sticking to their policy of no refunds for the runners, but will guarantee entry to next year's marathon.

The Vogt's said they were looking forward to a Friday evening dinner in New York City -- but with a lot fewer carbohydrates than originally planned.

Copyright 2012 by KCRA and The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.